AN epidemic of stress is hitting many Black Saturday survivors, according to a leading disaster psychologist.
Dr Rob Gordon said the stress “grinds people down” and triggers pre-existing problems, leading to suicide, domestic violence and substance abuse. Problems were emerging three years after the fire as people now had time to grieve, he said.
Dr Gordon and former humanitarian aid worker and Arthurs Creek resident Mark Squirrell addressed 100 survivors at a booked-out bushfire recovery session at the Whittlesea Golf Club last week. “We don’t grieve if we don’t have the leisure time to do it, and it [the grief] is put aside,” Dr Gordon said.
“People who are starting to relax are finding they are feeling bad and can’t understand why. Relatives who tell them it is time they pull themselves together and move on have to be more sensitive… There is no lack of [counselling and other] services in Kinglake; the problem is encouraging people to use them.”
Dr Gordon’s comments follow revelations that children who survived the fires face the toughest time for recovery this year, according to secondary school counsellors.
Mr Squirrell, who lost many friends in the fires, said the communities were still hurting. The former army commando discussed coping strategies used by victims in war zones where he had worked that might be applied to fire survivors. He said people who survived emotionally had a strong connection to their family and wider community.
Meanwhile, the Department of Justice has received 189 applications for the state government’s bushfire property buyback scheme.
